


obito pergi ke pasar

by magma_maiden



Series: heartless, dragonless, sunless [5]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Naruto
Genre: ASOIAF!Naruto, Gen, lore snippets - sunless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-16 07:52:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13631940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magma_maiden/pseuds/magma_maiden
Summary: Obito went to the market and met someone he didn't expect





	obito pergi ke pasar

**Author's Note:**

> naruto (c) masashi kishimoto  
> asoiaf (c) george r. r. martin  
> i take no material profits from this work

The boy placed his arms on the windowsill, and leaned his head on them. Across the dark city, thin smoke rose from bakeries and various eateries that lined his street. Whenever he took a deep breath, the delectable aroma filled his lungs. Crows and chickens roused the city’s inhabitants with their noise. His downstairs neighbor opened her doors and windows, their hinges creaking aloud. In the distance, golden lines crept onto roofs and walls, unveiling their true colors to him.

The shops prepared themselves for today’s market. The grocer across his building had humongous radishes freshly unloaded from a cart. The fishmonger two shops away unsealed their wares from a scroll as tall as his growing self. His trained eyes spotted two tunas on the forefront table. The monger would use them to attract buyers, and the boy made a mental note to pass by that shop later.

He loved watching the city woke up. The noises and smells always comforted him, brimming with life. He could stay here like this for hours, but the sun would glare directly into his eyes and he had a duty to do.

It’s time to join them.

Someone dashed off from his roof, wearing green vest over navy shirt. Similar dark figures hid themselves in various corners, blending with the shadows. Their forehead protector glinted in the light of the dawn.

He grinned. It’s hard to believe he was the same rank as the city guardians now. That didn’t mean he should stop working hard. There were other milestones to surpass— namely, a certain teammate of his.

But first, morning routine.

He forwent his comb, opting to tidy his messy short hair with his fingers. His breakfast was a glass of water, nothing more. He knew where he could grab free fresh stuff later. None of his neighbors was awake. He had to tiptoe from his rented room to the exit.

“Flaunting your protector again, I see!”

The boy turned towards the shouting man, a burly butcher with bloodstained cleaver beside the building he called home. “Good morning, sir!” He faked a deep bow towards him. “I’d love to stop and chat, but I’m on duty! Keeping the streets safe from street rats, for one.”

“Well aren’t you a rat yourself!”

“Undoubtedly, I was!” He puffed out his chest, laughing. “I’ve graduated long ago though! Also recently promoted!” he added louder, making sure passers-by heard him.

An old woman with stained clothes limped towards the butcher’s table, and he hurried closer.

“Good morn—”

“Right on time!” the woman yelled, ushering a woven basket full of vegetables to his chest. He accepted it with an oof, his knees bent upon supporting its weight. She had purchased the huge radishes he saw earlier.

“Did you say you’re being promoted? Don’t they hold tests for that?” she asked while picking long sausage links. The butcher quickly wrapped everything she touched.

“Yes, ma’am! My team and I passed with flying colors!” he answered extra loud, knowing that the woman’s hearing was bad.

“Wooonderful.” She added three sausages into her basket. “Let’s stop by the baker before I go home!”

* * *

 

 

Ten minutes later, the boy leaned at a wall to finish his reward. He cleaned his chest from crumbs and licked the lemon curd off his fingers. It was small, but enough to sustain him until noon. Moreover, pastries like the lemon pie she bought for him were expensive for a boy whose earning relied solely on missions. But he lived here all of his life; he learned some ways to obtain free food without stealing a shopper’s grocery.

The main street was crowded. Shoulders bumped into shoulders, someone elbowed into someone. Apples or oranges would roll off from carts or baskets, straight to tiny thin hands. He watched a girl in rags, no older than seven, ran away with a plump orange to a nearby alleyway. If he was assigned to guard duty, he would have to chase her and retrieve the fruit. The protector tied on his head beckoned him to do so even though he wasn’t a guard.

But he was in her position once.

“Ouch!” A man forced him to the side with a powerful shove. Annoyed, the boy cursed under his breath while rubbing his upper arm. He turned around to continue walking, but nearly bumped into a woman.

“La… Lady—!”

“Ssh.”

He uttered a name soundlessly. Before him stood a beautiful, pale woman. She had a soft expression, framed by long strands of dark hair.

He remembered this face. When he was younger, his adoptive grandfather often took him to their extended family meeting held far from Konoha. Even though they sat far in the back, and ignored by most, only this woman bothered to greet them. Her seat was at the front, facing the audience. They never spoke; his grandfather always dragged him home as soon as the meeting is over.

Her finger rested on the middle of her lips, asking him to be silent. Seeing the boy was still slackjawed, the woman resumed walking.

“Wait!” He caught up with her. “Let me… let me help.” He offered his hand towards a heavy basket she carried.

“Is it really okay?” she asked, glancing at his forehead. “Do you have a job to do?”

“It’s fine. Just…” His cheeks warmed. “I want to help— I mean, you shouldn’t carry heavy veggies, ma’am, you’re pregnant.”

She stared at him until he lowered his gaze. He must have sounded so weird! He made a fool of himself before the wife of his clan leader! He—

“Here.”

The boy blinked, and looked up. The woman offered him her basket, beaming. A chicken leg stuck out from the small holes around it. “Didn’t you say you want to help…?”

“Oh—!” he took it carefully, as if he just received a chest full of silvers. “Thank you!” His hand trembled out of excitement.

Her hand covered her mouth as she chuckled. “I should be the one thanking you,” she tilted her head, “Obito.”

His mouth opened in surprise. She remembered his name! “I won’t disappoint you La—!” he lowered his voice, “Lady Mikoto…”

* * *

 

 

“You should show me around then. You live here, right?”

Obito answered Mikoto’s questions curtly about the marketplace. He gleaned that she had been here several times, but hadn’t explored every nook and cranny. They rarely stopped, only paused long enough for her to observe their wares. The blacksmith corner caught her interest the most. She chatted with the smiths over their weapons. Even tried swinging a kunai on her forefinger, which earned her a panicked plea from said smith. Obito would be panicked too had he didn’t notice she handled them like an expert would.

The boy had his own questions waiting in his throat, but it felt impolite to launch them out. Why was she here alone? She’s the Uchiha clan head’s wife! And pregnant! Where were her guards? Why did the city guards do nothing? Why would someone of a high birth like her strolled the humble marketplace where commonfolk crowded?

“Is my basket too heavy…?”

Obito snapped out from his thoughts, and promptly shook his head. “No, it’s… sorry, I’m really awkward.”

“Why?” Mikoto stopped to examine a fruit stall. Its owner didn’t seem to recognize her. He couldn’t blame him; she dressed like any common women do. Her hair hid her back, hiding the family crest usually sewn between the shoulder blades.

“It’s not polite…” He directed his eyes to stomped and rotten fruits under the stall. Flies flew as he swung his free hand.

“Let me hear your thoughts.” She added two apples into her basket.

“Why… why my lady is here? It’s not… somewhere a noblewoman usually frequent…” His voice trailed off. The thundering noise in his chest told him his heart beat faster.

“Shopping. What else?”

“Huh?” Obito lifted his face. Her answer wasn’t something he expected.

“Worry not, my husband knows.” She continued walking. Her pregnancy didn’t slow her down. “I haven’t done any shinobi duties since I got married, but my skills are as sharp as ever!”

He mentally slapped his forehead. How could he forget that she reached the rank jonin before her marriage?

Mikoto chuckled, her expression turned serious. “I am no noble. Nobody bears that title anymore.”

“Sorry.” Obito’s calf felt cold when the cart’s wheel splattered mud on his pants. “My grandfather referred my lady and Lord Fugaku as nobles… I thought that too.”

“It’s understandable. You never lived with us at the compound,” she paused to avoid an oncoming cart of sugar sacks, “but I don’t understand why.”

“Why what?” 

Her smile had disappeared. “Why you didn’t live with us.”

From the main street, where the bakeries located, they took a turn to the imported goods street. Many shops here had been closed for awhile following the war that involved most of the five elemental countries. While trading usually wasn’t affected much, this war was greater than the previous two. In more peaceful days, the street was lined with colorful glass wares from Suna, pearls from Kiri Isles, and strange beasts from Kumo mountains.

Mikoto stopped abruptly at a storyteller’s corner, causing Obito to almost bumping into her. Many children gathered before a little stage decorated with twigs and leaves. An elderly man moved dolls rapidly on the stage while reciting his story without pausing for breath. Obito recognized the dragons and grinned.

“You like storytelling?”

“Only if it has dragons,” he replied without taking off his attention to the storyteller.

The man had a deep voice, and his eyes lit up in fiery passion as he spoke. “The Realm was infested with dragons! Dragons here!” he pushed a brown dragon doll through the twigs, “dragons there!” another one popped up from under the stage. Several children screamed in surprise.

“No one could sleep in peace!” He took out more dragon dolls, pushing them towards the children on the front row. “When they spread their wings, they blocked the sky! When they landed, the earth shook, toppling houses and trees alike! But their deadliest weapon was the fire in their belly. Burned everything they came across!”

More dolls appeared at the stage, human shaped. Their clothes were bright and similarly cut, only different in colors. “In those dark age these humans rose to challenge them! The elemental heroes, the shadows who protected the Realm!”

Obito could taste disappointment on his tongue. This wasn’t the story he liked, although it was popular among the children. The audience erupted in cheer as the hero dolls kicked the dragons off stage. He stopped paying attention after a doll garbed in white came to the stage, representing the Sage.

A boy walked through the audience with a box, accepting coins from them. Mikoto placed several coppers into it. “I thought you like it?” she asked once the boy left.

“Not when the dragons died—” Obito reached down to pick up the basket, but some of the contents were missing. “The chicken…” he whispered, “your chicken, ma’am.”

“What of it?”

“...Gone.” Obito wiped his eyes with his sleeves. How could he not paying attention to the roaming street rats? They loved this place! Stupid! Careless! Avoiding her face, Obito scanned the crowd. Everyone seemed to be innocent. The storytelling had been going for a while; the thief wouldn’t linger around. If his eyes had been awakened, the search would’ve been easier…

“There goes my dinner.” Mikoto squeezed his shoulder gently.

Obito squirmed. “...Sorry.”

“It’s just chicken, Obito. I can buy another.” She looked around briefly. “What do you say if we follow the thief?” she asked in a hushed voice.

“But the track… people’s footsteps have—” Panic built up within him, blocking his thoughts from converting into words.

“Don’t say that before we try it. Come on. You know this market better than I do.”

He stared at her. Mikoto‘s face looked optimistic, not a trace of anger was seen. He messed up her shopping trip, yet she still encouraged him.

The crowd began to gather again as the storyteller started his second tale. Obito watched their shoes, and took a deep breath.

* * *

 

 

Once he calmed down, tracking the thief wasn’t difficult. The rats who stole food were children, the adults stole purses. Theirs were still intact. The street rats wore no shoes. Their silent footsteps matched the ANBU’s, but they couldn’t cover their tracks as well as they did.

Obito followed rats’ tracks since before he enrolled at the academy to hone his skills. Adult rats walk on their toes. The children didn’t. The less crowded street helped his search.

There was only a single small footsteps that went straight to a narrow alley. A place where an average citizen wouldn’t step into. The sound of water dripping echoed throughout it. Between two rooftops flanking the alley, bundles of leaves were placed to block the sunlight. The alley smelled damp.

Once his eyesight adjusted to the darkness, Obito spotted the thief hunched over few meters ahead. The same street rat he saw earlier today. She spoke in a hushed and reassuring tones, repeating the same phrase over and over.

“Here’s yours. Don’t take others’ food. Here’s for you. Enough chicken for us.”

Small shadows skittered around her legs, meowing endlessly. Another smell emanated not far from the girl. Chicken stock. An adult, seemed to be a thin woman, emerged from an unseen hole with a steaming pot and bowls. She poured its content to the bowls, gave one to the girl, then sat across them, noisily drinking her soup.

The girl turned around to find a seat, but she froze. She had spotted them on the mouth of the alley. For a while Obito felt like staring at a scrawny boy with smeared face, breaking chicken bones to share with stray animals.

“It’s time to go,” Mikoto whispered, gently squeezing his shoulder again, and the boy in his mind became a girl with a bowl of chicken soup.

Like in a daze, he followed her away from the alley. Before long, they left the marketplace behind, and Obito found his voice again.

“Why?” he croaked, between confused and relieved. He couldn’t bring it upon himself to punish the girl and her family for stealing food. He knew what it felt like, seeing servants of wealthy people purchasing carts of food while they scrapped streets for crumbs. He knew the feeling of waking up to delicious smells he would never taste that day.

“Wasn’t it too late to retrieve my chicken?” she asked back as they walked down the residential area. The houses around here were bigger than most, housing top officials of Konoha. Every trees and bushes were neatly trimmed. The flowerbeds filled the air with their fragrant smell.

“Yes, but… it’s my responsibility, I should’ve bought you another, ma’am,” Obito insisted. It’s not unusual for him to meet street rats when he accompanied an elderly shopping. This was the first time his companion became their victim.

“Nevermind the chicken.” She shook her head. “Besides, I’m happy she shared it with those cats. They’re so skinny.”

A light breeze blew from the north. Obito shivered as the cold air brushed past his cheeks. “Do you… do you like cats, ma’am?”

“I love them.” Mikoto turned, beaming. “Itachi does too. He won’t mind if we’re having fish again for dinner once I tell him what happened.”

Obito returned her smile with a grin. “I like cats too.”

She stopped before a vast garden. The name Uchiha was engraved on a dark stone post as tall as his hip. A meandering grey stone path guided them inside, flanked with pines and fruit trees. The house was two stories high, built entirely from wood with white walls and dark roofs. The entrance was a small door hidden under a wooden canopy. Tall bamboo trees towered from behind. There must be an inner garden.

Obito gaped at the sight. He could move his rented room into this mansion— heck, he could move the entire building into it!

“Mother? Who’s this?”

He turned to find a small boy half his age staring at him. His attention was drawn to the basket in Obito’s grasp, and he approached with arms extended towards it.

Obito only blinked.

“Let me carry it for you,” Itachi insisted. “You’re guest.”

“I’m not—”

Itachi managed to snatch the heavy basket from him, his small body swayed slightly due to its weight. As the boy went inside without words, Mikoto snickered.

“Would you like to come inside?”

Obito’s breath paused for a second. Him? To a place this big? Someone who lived in the marketplace since his early years? The biggest building he ever entered was the Hokage residence, and it was only to take missions. Her invitation sounded like pointing out the frayed edges of his clothes and makeshift repairs here and there.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he began, “but I…” and his words were lost.

Mikoto had been so kind to him. Wouldn’t refusing be rude?

“I just need to talk to you for a bit,” she added.

“On wha—”

“There you are!”

A shinobi landed before them, having jumped from the rooftop. She attacked the startled Obito with her rants, leaving no room for him to speak.

“I thought I’ve specifically told you we’re going to meet an hour before our mentor arrived! We finally get to the front line, and you’re late!”

Between the rising panic over his forgetfulness, he managed not to embarass himself further before Mikoto. “Rin,” Obito mouthed, his eyes darted from his teammate to his relative behind her.

“We’re chunin now. Please be more disciplined—” Rin turned around, gasping aloud. “Oh I am so sorry, ma’am, I didn’t see…!”

As the girl bowed deeply to apologize, Mikoto calmed her. “I know you’re needed elsewhere, but may I talk to him…?

“Certainly, ma’am, I’ll wait outside…”

Rin’s back had disappeared behind a pine tree when Mikoto whispered, “I have a duty over my clan, and that is to ensure my entire family live comfortably.”

Obito could only nod, although he wondered why she started it like this…

“You live alone now after your adoptive grandfather passed away,” she continued, “so I’m thinking… if you don’t mind, of course, to move into the compound.”

“No.” He shook his head fervently. “Thank you, but… no. I-it’s too far, too.” His relatives wouldn’t like him there for sure. They would tie him to his late adoptive grandfather and his crooked views of the clan.

“So I thought,” Mikoto straightened her back, glancing to her own house, “I’ve discussed with my husband. Would you like to live with us?”

Obito’s eyes widened. Since his caretaker’s death, he never hoped to live with his living relatives. But here it is, a chance to live with a family...

“You don’t have to answer right now,” she quickly added. “Just please think about it—”

“I… I will!” He grasped her hands, his face radiated happiness. “I’ll let you know after… after this mission.”

“I’ll wait for your answer.” Mikoto stepped aside, allowing Obito to see her son peeking from the door. “Now don’t make your teammates wait even longer.”

He couldn’t say anything, tears welled in his eyes. He gave her a deep bow, then rushed to Rin outside her garden. He couldn’t wait to finish this mission quickly.

Finally, Obito had a place called home.


End file.
